50. Moonspell – Alpha Noir

This is Moonspell stripped down to their core. There’s no gothic overtones, no keyboard cheese, no female vocals and the vocalist’s deep goth vocals probably make up no more than 30 seconds of the entire album. Instead the band deliver a blackened thrash version of their former selves, full of heavy riffs and death/black growls. Definitely recommended for those into the blackened metal style (notice I didn’t say black metal), even if you’ve hated everything else this band has ever done.

48. The Saddest Landscape – After the Lights

There is just something about the way these guys put together their songs, and the intensity of the vocals and just the total package. The sputnik page says this is Emo, but it’s not the whiny shit that you might expect. The vocalist’s unique way of singing (it’s like a weird wavering thing) really sets these guys apart.

47. Meshuggah – Koloss

Yes, it’s another Meshuggah album? but since it sounds more like “Obzen” than “Nothing” it means that it still rocks. If you love Meshuggah’s current direction you should love this, if you don’t then it won’t change your mind. It did sell 18,340 copies in its first week to chart at number 16 on the Billboard charts. Who could have predicted that?

46. Enslaved – RIITIIR

By now, everyone probably knows what to expect from these guys. They’re epic, classy, black metal complete with mellow sections, clean singing and quicker black metal parts. The biggest thing that these guys have going for them is that they do it better than most and their songs seem to have a lot more direction without resorting to being weird.

45. Ne Obliviscaris – Portal of I

Okay, this album definitely suffers from some growing pains but overall it is really good. It’s basically progressive death metal similar to Opeth but much more proggy. They just need to make the songs flow a little better.

43. Daylight Dies – A Frail Becoming

To me, it always seemed like Daylight Dies was trying to make the ‘black album’ of doom. Much like Metallica’s release did with metal, this band seems to be trying to boil doom down to its best elements and deliver them in short, easy to consume bursts. Paradise Lost has had some success with the formula and My Dying Bride gave it a shot with Like Gods of the Sun, but Daylight Dies had never really hit that level of quality — until now.

42. NoFX – Self Entitled

It’s a NoFx album. It’s funny, sarcastic, fun punk rock. What else do you expect? Does anyone really expect them to release variations of The Decline? I bet that even if they did, people would still bitch all the time. It’s NoFx doing NoFx and I love it.

41. 7 Horns 7 Eyes – Throes of Absolution

Melodic death metal meets Djent. That’s basically what it is and it’s a great take on a sound (Djent) that’s already getting really fucking stale. This album is chock full of leads and melodic harmonies. Best yet the vocals sticks with death metal instead of that raspy shout that a lot of these bands have decided to use.

40. Obsidian Kingdom – Mantiis

Post rock, post metal, black metal, doom, progressive… pretty good stuff. The album seems to be one song that is broken up into separate tracks. If nothing else, they all seem to fade into each other. There’s catchy sections, mellow sections and heavy sections and they all work really well together.

38. Bleeding Through – The Great Fire

37. Clubroot – III MMXII

A lot of people are creaming over stuff like this, and with good reason. This is some excellent electro-ambient music in the vein of The Orb, William Orbit and Aphex Twin’s ambient works releases. Chill, atmospheric and very well done.

36. Katatonia – Dead End Kings

Be careful what you wish for… After the release of their last album, I was hoping for them to go in a direction similar to The Cure’s Disintegration album — something more expansive and diverse. Well, the band have slightly moved in that direction and I’ve never been able to get into it the same way I did with their last three or four releases. Don’t get me wrong, this is still really good but they should have gone a bit further.

35. My Dying Bride – A Map of All Our Failures

Let’s face it, they’re never going to make another Turn Loose the Swans again. It’s just not going to happen. On the other hand, the extended doom/death stuff that they’ve been doing lately is still really good. Probably their best release since returning to the doom sound.

34. Becoming the Archetype – I Am

This is the only album of their’s that I have heard, and I like it. Apparently, their previous releases are all better than this… I wouldn’t know. I do know that this is some pretty good metalcore with the slightest death metal hints thrown in. The leads are excellent, by the way.

33. Cannibal Corpse – Torture

This brings together everything that makes Cannibal Corpse kick ass. Corpsegrinder’s vocals, crazy tempos and a healthy dose of technicality. Of course, there is more than a passing similarity to their last two albums, but they kicked ass too so fuck you for nitpicking.

31. Finsterforst – Rastlos

Imagine if Borknagar dropped the pretentious progressive parts and replaced them with some of the black metal aggression that they’ve been missing. Excellent stuff… one of the only ‘folk’ influenced black metal bands that I can actually stand because they don’t come with an extra side of cheese.

30. Lunik – What is Next

[Review] // [Spotify]

These guys are really beginning to perfect their brand of folky indie-pop. The electronics of their past are long gone, but they’ve still got Jael, and as long as she remains their singer their albums should be pretty damn good. This one is no exception.

29. Green Day – Uno!

A lot of people hate this album, but I don’t. Why? Because I don’t live with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Jesus — I live in reality and I understand that they really only know how to make simple pop punk. Yes, they tried to expand their sound and the masses flocked to it because the extended song lengths made them feel less musically retarded, but it was a fluke. This is what they do and they generally do it pretty well.

28. Anberlin – Vital

Can these guys do anything wrong? It’s another dose of similar indie/alt. rock, but it’s really well done. Every album they seem to alter their formula just the slightest bit and this time they’ve managed to churn out their best release since Never Take Friendship Personal.

27. Sleigh Bells – Reign of Terror

I think I described it in a comment once as dream pop with a serious attitude. It’s basically programmed beats with noisy-ass guitar parts combined with soft female vocals (with grittier vocals thrown around in the background). It’s cool, just know that.

26. Ihsahn – Eremita

If After showed Ihsahn finally finding his own sound and not relying on the past and blatant influence-worship, then this is him fine-tuning that sound. It’s probably his least aggressive album, but there are still plenty of high speed sections and black metal vocals but they’re mixed with a much larger prog influence as well as more clean vocals and even some sax.

25. Eternal Deformity – The Beauty of Chaos

[Review] // [Spotify]

Another progressive black metal band, but these guys trade the ‘epic’ for more of a strange angle similar to early Arcturus and Solefald.

24. The Last Word – Endlessly Crashing

This is another one of those metalcore/post hardcore hybrids that seems to be popping up all over the place. You know the type — metalcore heaviness and death growls combined with poppy, post hardcore singing and occasional catchy sections. Well, this is another one of those and it’s done really well. They have a keyboard player that kind of adds a symphonic element to the music and the vocals are really good.

23. Anathema – Weather Systems

It seems that these guys can do no wrong. They use their previous album as a starting point but move beyond it. This album is more dynamic than the previous release and everything from the melodies to the vocals has somehow improved dramatically. This one definitely took a lot of time to grow on me and the latter part is still a bit boring by Anathema standards, but overall it’s still worthy of a spot on this list.

21. Fear Factory – The Industrialist

It’s Fear Factory with a drum machine. Too bad most people couldn’t tell the difference anyway. This album brings back the industrial and is also very diverse (for a FF album). Everyone was firing on all cylinders for this recording.

20. Napalm Death – Utilitarian

They’re labeled as grind, but the band have evolved enough that it’s probably kind of a limiting genre tag. I can tell you that this album is full of fucking awesome riffs that pull from metal, punk and death metal. And the vocals. The animalistic, throaty shouts of whoever the fuck sings in this band are what pushes the riffy goodness to another level. Hell yes.

19. Deftones – Koi No Yokan

Do I really have to say anything about these guys? By now you’ve already made up your mind about this band and you’re either going to listen to it, already have or fucking won’t. Let me toss this out there anyway: Their best since White Pony.

18. Imminent Sonic Destruction – Recurring Themes

Mixing modern metal with the kind of prog that bands like Porcupine Tree have made famous. It can go from mellow melodic parts to rhythmic power chords on a dime and the vocalist is good enough to fit each section just fine. The only thing is that he is a bit nasally and it might be a turn off for some people, but I was just fine with him.

17. Quovis – Industrial Zero

This is ambient electro similar to Aphex Twin and The Future Sound of London, but it also has its own sound. It’s really like “Life Forms” except the theme is the evolution of the industrial revolution from the 1800s all the way to a time in the near future. It features plenty of well-done electronics, found sounds, spoken word sections to carry the story but also a surprising progressive rock slant in the percussion area. Well worth checking out for anyone into The Future Sound of London.

16. Now, Now – Threads

Mellow female fronted indie pop with an electronic vibe. Despite the upbeat tempos, the album still has a dreary, gritty feel that contrasts really well with the female vocals. Think Eisley with a dirty edge (and no harmonized vocals).

15. Paradise Lost – Tragic Idol

Paradise Lost have finally completed their transition away from the electro-rock influences and have also embraced a bit of their past. This should definitely appeal to those people that still wish for another “Icon” or “Draconian Times”. It’s heavy, doomy, metal.

14. Khors – Wisdom of Centuries

Look at the band photo and take a guess as to the type of music these guys play. Did you say melodic black metal? If so, who are you talking to? You’re right, but you might be crazy too. This is definitely melodic black metal with extended song lengths, tempo changes, musical transitions, keyboards and… arm spikes. Note to potential fans… don’t let the bald guy hug you because he might smash your juice box.

13. Soen – Cognitive

Imagine Tool without Maynard’s bitch-boy attitude, without the extended atmospheric parts and without the random throw-away tracks littered throughout (almost) every album. Now imagine Tool with Martin Lopez (ex-Opeth) on drums and Steve DiGiorgio (Testament, Death) on bass. Add to that a greater willingness to get heavy and with a more solid metal foundation and that is this album in a nutshell.

12. The Devin Townsend Project – Epicloud

Let’s get one thing out of the way right now. The song “Lucky Animals” is annoying as fuck, but it doesn’t ruin the album. It’s also not the super-diverse release that it was hyped up to be. It’s like Ocean Machine for 2012 and that’s good enough for me because that album rocks. PS – Ignore Irving’s review… he knows not what he does.

11. The Gathering – Disclosure

Almost as a consolation to fans for losing Anneke, the band’s previous album was a throwback to their Mandylion days and it was pretty good, but it definitely lacked flair and character. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that with the release of Disclosure they’ve returned to their proggy alt. rock sound and the band sound inspired again and even manage to surprise a little. Definitely near the top of their current-sound releases.

10. Sybreed – God is an Automaton

Soilwork go industrial… Good, now that I’ve lost everybody I can just be left alone with my thoughts and this excellent release. In their defense, they’ve introduced a guttural death vocal that kicks things up a notch and the raspy growl has more power behind it than it ever has in the past.

9. Further Seems Forever – Penny Black

I thought I’d hate this release. I hate Dashboard Confessional’s incessant whining, and I don’t particularly like this band’s debut album either (which also featured this vocalist… in case you can’t connect the dots). I also loved their last album with their previous vocalist, and the slick alternative sound that they were using. Well, it turns out that I had nothing to worry about. Slick alt. rock with a vocalist that somehow managed to keep his tears off the microphone.

8. Hypno5e – Acid Mist Tomorrow

Tesseract without the tunnel vision? The heavy parts are rhythmic, with lots of bottom end and just a bit of Djent influence (without making it the goddamned driving force like a lot of these bands). The quieter parts are where these guys really shine, though. The clean, harmonized vocals are great and the melodies are some of the best I’ve heard. Dark, heavy and diverse. There are just a few too many spoken word sections, but not enough to take away from the quality.

7. Antimatter – Fear of a Unique Identity

Initially this band was a collaboration between the bald dude that’s in the picture and one of the guys from Anathema, and it featured guest female vocalists and a gothy, acoustic, trip hop hybrid that was really cool. Eventually, the Anathema dude left and the albums lost a bit of their diversity. With the release of Fear of a Unique Identity that diversity has finally returned. That doesn’t mean the electronics have fully returned (there are some, though), but there are guest vocalists again (in addition to his excellent voice, of course) and the songs are much more varied… and, of course, the whole thing is still wrapped in a very depressing atmosphere.

6. Marissa Nadler – The Sister

Probably my favorite album of hers. Very chill and kind of dark indie folk featuring the haunting vocals of Marissa Nadler. Some people will tell you that it’s basically more of the same, but it seems that her songs have become less reliant on stripped down acoustic songs and more adept at being atmospheric and moody.

5. The Birthday Massacre – Hide and Seek

I think this happens to every band that slowly transitions their sound away from their initial release. Each album moves further away from what the longtime fans (and, usually, the most vocal fans too) are used to so the band tries to make a concession by integrating the old with the new. The result is usually a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ kind of vibe and that is what we have here. Not as slick and catchy as their previous album because they tried to re-intigrate some of the darker elements back in — mission accomplished, but it’s not as good as any of the previous stuff. Then why is it number five? It’s The Birthday Massacre and their misstep would be another band’s masterpiece.

4. Killing Joke – MMXII

One of my favorite Killing Joke releases. It seems like they finally mixed just about everything that has ever made them good. It has the post punk of the earliest releases, the catchy sections of the Night Time era, the industrial metal of Millennium along with an increased use of electronics that were generally only used on the remixes. Nice work guys.

3. Anneke van Giersbergen – Everything is Changing

Anneke ditches any pretense of this being a collaborative effort by dropping the band name, and who cares? This mix of playful alternative, electronics and even a bit of prog makes this one of the best things she has ever been a part of.

2. Testament – Dark Roots of the Earth

Nobody plays guitar solos on a microphone stand the way that Chuck Billy does. This is thrash done right, featuring all of the original members except for the drummer. He kind of sucked anyway and they got band-whore extraordinaire Gene Hoglan to replace him.

1. Atoma – Skylight

This album takes the best parts of Tiamat’s “A Deeper Kind of Slumber” and mixes it with a bit of At the Soundawn or “Streams Inwards” era Mar de Grises. On top of that the album slowly integrates more and more shoegaze into the songs until they finally sound a bit like Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine complete with reverb-filled guitars and warm layers of synth. Highly recommended.

list is very, um, Willie. That write-up for Clubroot is pretty hilariously wrong, but I'll save that for Deviant. Nice feature, even if our tastes don't align like at all. I think I might check out one or two of the "melodic death metal" albums you included. but this:

"Electro-metalcore with a bit of Djent and post hardcore thrown in for good measure. "

I have had the pleasure of reading your lists since 2009. Yours are the best, and this site is worth just for having the chance to read your end-of-year lists. Nice to see you still care for The Birthday Massacre. As with your previous recommendation, I will try this one as well, along with many others from your list.

You have balls for standing behind that Green Day album. I can respect that. Thanks for the work of putting this together, and the nice album descriptions.

Dig that you didn't shy away from the unpopular stuff. I listened to "Let Yourself Go" more than almost any punk or pop-punk song released this year (other than Bad Religion's "Fuck You"), and I fucking LOVED 'Epicloud' (don't get the hate). Good stuff, Willie.

Are those two different female electro-pop bands called Lunik and Lunic?

willie man i dont give a crap about the music you wrote about now that I know you fly f22s [75423]

Great list man, it's funny I love metalcore but my year end list hardly has any i do. It's nice seeing people on sputnik who like whatever the fuck they want. Have fun flying dem planes man, my dream has always been flying in an SR71.

"Yeah. What didn't you like about it? It seemed like a good return to form."

It's not so much that I think it's a bad album or anything (because I don't), I just find it to be really kinda boring. Like it's nice to see them kinda heading back to a sound resembling Saviour, but instead of being a "return to form" or whatever, it just feels more like an inadequate re-tread over ground they've covered before. I know they'll never release another Saviour and i'm fine with that, but it feels like an old band trying to play their earlier material when their hearts clearly don't seem to be in it. Well, that and the clear lack of dubstep of course. I mean, what were they thinking???!

xing - I'm kind of glad we seem to have moved on from dozens of "lol, list blows" comments (though I'm preparing myself for the user and staff year-end features). I don't like this shit at all - his taste I mean, but people have different preferences so who are we to judge? The effort put into it is nice to see, and the words he wrote are mostly interesting. That should be the focus here - not our petty disagreements over the "quality" of certain music.